THE COMPACT SOURCE IN THE SUPERNOVA REMNANT RCW103

ABSTRACT

We propose to observe the compact source at the geometrical center of the shell-type supernova remnant RCW103. The source has been considered to be an isolated neutron star formed by the supernova explosion. Recent ASCA observations showed that its flux varies more than an order of magnitude on the timescale of years. Such behavior can not be explained by standard model such as a rotation powered pulsar or a cooling neutron star. We propose a long term observation to clarify its nature.